


Whumptober 2019: Beaten

by Millberry_5



Series: Whumptober 2019 [5]
Category: Helix Waltz (Video Game)
Genre: Character Death, Gen, I don't think Chu quite counts as a major character, Mandaria illusion bad ending, Mentioned Character Death, Minor Character Death, but just in case, smoke inhalation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 01:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21291122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Millberry_5/pseuds/Millberry_5
Summary: Day 28 - BeatenTo be beaten, defeated, conquered. Magda faces all these things, like her worst nightmares, memories and anxieties stirred into one, at the end of her first year in the illusion box. Here, she finds defeat, reflects, then finds resolve.
Series: Whumptober 2019 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1502099
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Whumptober 2019: Beaten

**Author's Note:**

> Content warnings for: character death, death by smoke inhalation, helplessness/physical inability to help or stop watching

The Yan are breaking down the palace doors.

The princess is poisoned. Dead.

An Hu is dead. Magda knows the young emperor will soon follow.

Asaro and Zhao Lang have fled. She doesn’t blame them for taking care of themselves in this instance.

Zhou Heqi was executed some time ago in the fog of days she can’t quite remember.

The consorts remain her enemies, the ministers dismissive of her.

It’s been a whole year, and she hasn’t managed anything.

Magda watches the body she’s occupied move on its own.

No, not its own. Chu Wanti is moving. Probably in the same way she did the first time she died.

Chu moves to a balcony overlooking the palace and breaks down crying as the invading forces move through it.

It’s funny, in a way that’s not funny at all, how it reminds her of the question she’s been asked so many times in Finsel.

But this time, there’s no Alan to optimistically turn to like she so often replies. An Hu was the closest to that sort of person, but he’s still dead.

So, with the rest of the guards fleeing, the Yan invaders have free reign of the palace.

They set fire to it, as Chu continues crying on the ground.

Magda watches the fire climb, like it’s done in her nightmares so many times. But this time, instead of her own childhood disaster, accompanied by imagined heat, she’s watching it, fully cognizant, and can’t feel the temperature change a single degree. She can’t feel anything.

Because her time is up. She can’t do anything.

She’s been beaten by her own inadequacy, and the only silver lining is that someone is with Chu as she dies. Ba Qi had run off to get something, and is probably already dead.

So Magda decides to stay with Chu as she dies, smoke inhalation lulling the poor girl into a slumber she won’t wake up from.

Better than fire or warriors, Magda decides.

This Dynasty has been conquered. All her efforts have been defeated. And as Magda watches to flames rise towards the balcony, she knows she can’t give up.

She’ll do this. Again and again. However many times it takes to give a happy ending to these people, or at least to their souls in the box.


End file.
